The opening routine, with the 18 remaining dancers, feels like it owes more of its coolness to the costumes than the choreography. It was done by Christopher "Pharside" Jennings and Krystal "Phoenix" Meraz of the Academy of Villains crew.

The contestants are introduced in pairs, based on who they danced with last week -- the notable exception is Stanley & Jessica, newly paired after their former partners were eliminated:

The judges are sitting in a different order than usual, with Nigel Lythgoe in the middle, Mary Murphy to his right and returning guest judge Misty Copeland to his left. Nigel runs down the show's seven Emmy nominations, including one for host Cat Deeley. Go, Cat, go!

Results first: The bottom six dancers are Bridget, Emilio, Emily, Stanley, Jourdan and Teddy. What? WHAT? Why are people not voting for Teddy? He's freaking adorable and a great dancer. I'm also kind of surprised the sparkly and cute Bridget is not getting fan support.

They do a hip-hop routine choreographed by Keone Madrid and Mari Madrid to Sam Smith's "Stay with Me." I'm all for choreography stretching boundaries, but I'm not sure why this is considered hip-hop and not "jazz" or something else. It's like a Kidz Bop version of hip-hop.

Mary, in a black dress with a large white collar and cuffs, has her hair teased and pinned up. The whole effect is very Gibson Girl and it works on her. There's more teasing Jacque about Rudy and that's so not why I tune into the show. Nigel compares the Madrids' obsession with hand positioning to that of Bollywood choreography. Misty says they've grown in their partnership.

Marcquet tells us Jourdan always works out. Good for her. Ballerinas are some bad mamma jammas, y'all. Marcquet is in a hip hop crew that has a "lock on Utah." During rehearsal, Marcquet is a little shy about how much he's getting into Jourdan's personal space.

This contemporary routine from Dee Caspery is kind of quiet and delicate in an interesting way.

Nigel says he's not really connecting with either dancer. He says there's a "slight lack of discipline" in all of Marcquet's work. He criticizes his posture during lifts, and gives him advice about how to position his knees over his toes for better balance. Misty echoes the concerns about Marcquet's partnering skills, but compliments him on being more noticeable in this week's routine than he was last week. Misty says Jourdan has the whole package with her body, but that her face doesn't match what her body is doing. Yes, this is a show where a judge can legitimately say, "I don't like your face."

Cat asks Nigel to explain about the knees-over-toes thing. Mary uses the word "magical" to describe the choreography and staging of the routine. She says there's something missing with Jourdan, but she can't put her finger on it. Mary wants Marcquet to watch how he's "shaping" his foot.

Stanley is an aspiring male model. They show some of his shots and he's working some serious Blue Steel. Jessica is a surfer, or at least is trying to be.

Tyce DiOrio is choreographing a jazz routine for them that's a "magic carpet ride." The title of this song is "Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter." I have no idea what that means, but it's making me laugh a lot. The dance is done entirely on a large, square Oriental carpet. It kind of makes me think of a gymnastics floor routine, in that I wonder if they'll lose points for going out of bonds.

Misty says Jessica "can move," but that Stanley kind of overdoes it with the face sometimes. She also says that when Stanley's at his most extended, that's when he shines. Mary compliments Stanley's lack of fear when he goes for his jumps. She tells Jessica her dancing speaks for itself and she doesn't need to oversell it with her face. Nigel worries about Jessica's "overaction" with her face. I don't know why the judges are surprised by this, given that every single routine we saw from her in auditions was stripper level of "Want me! Want me! Want me!"

Bridget tells us Emilio practiced taekwondo for 10 years and got his black belt at age 12. We then find out that Bridget goes to renaissance fairs and has a wand because she's a wizard.

They're doing a jive routine choreographed by Pasha Kovalev (Season 3 contestant) and Anya Garnis (Season 2 contestant). At one point, Emilio drops Bridget on her butt; she gets revenge later by accidentally elbowing him in the face. Luckily it doesn't rebreak his nose. It's a cute routine, but Emilio has a hard time at one point with a slide through Bridget's legs. I don't know if she wasn't standing correctly or if his aim was off.

Mary's happy, and says welcome back to Pasha and Anya. Mary lets us know that it was Anya who first inspired the "hot tamale train." Mary says that Bridget really captured the technique of the jive, Emilio not so much. Nigel is heartbroken that these two are in the bottom six this week. Misty calls Bridget "perfection" tonight.

Emily is a spear fisher and Teddy is super competitive at board games. I love him even more. These two have a Tyce DiOrio contemporary routine. It ends with a prolonged amount of rolling around on the floor. They're both obviously overcome with emotion at the end; Emily even looks like she's tearing up.

Nigel mentions some of the song's lyrics, which here were performed in French by Nina Simone, but were later translated into English by poet Rod McKuen as, "If you go away on this summer day/Then you might as well take the sun away." He says Teddy and Emily touched the human spirit. Misty asks Emily if she speaks French. When Emily says no, Misty replies, "Your body does." Misty is a fan of Teddy, calling him a beautiful dancer who translates into every genre. Mary tells Emily choreographers are going to be glad to get her for routines. She found Teddy mesmerizing tonight.

Brooklyn is a skateboarder. When she says she thinks she's pretty good and we see footage of her falling off a skateboard, Casey deadpans, "If you say so." Brooklyn lets us know that even though we know Casey takes his hair seriously, he also takes his fashion seriously. Really? That's such a shocker. And so unexpected. My eyes hurt from the rolling.

They've got a jazz routine choreographed by Bonnie Story. Gosh, Casey is showing off some seriously classic technique here. I could believe him as a professional theater dancer from any of the last seven decades.

Misty felt like Brooklyn did more this week, but she could see when she was concentrating on a difficult move. Misty says Casey was fabulous and can't wait to see him mature more. Mary agrees with Misty about some of Brooklyn's technical issues. She thought Casey was brilliant. Nigel says choreographer Bonnie Story really challenged Brooklyn with some of the non-ballroom moves. Nigel says Casey was "smoking."

Valerie is obsessed with pigs and owns more than 200 plush toy pigs. Ricky was a mascot in high school: Barry the Barracuda. It's utterly ridiculous and kind of cute.

Lacey Schwimmer, Season 3 contestant and "Dancing with the Stars" pro, is doing a Viennese Waltz. She is nearly unrecognizable from the time she was on the show, between her now bleached blonde hair and whatever she's done to her face. She wants to make sure Valerie and Ricky keep the correct hold throughout the dance, so she tapes them together with duct tape.

It's a very romantic routine and Valerie takes to it like a very graceful duck to smooth water. Nigel liked it so much that he's standing at the judges table. Mary calls the beginning of the routine "dreamlike." She says Ricky's topline was amazing, but warns him about his "leg action." She says Valerie was beautiful, but sometimes need to watch her topline. Nigel has nothing to say about their technique but calls their performance "beyond reproach." He says Valerie looks like Cinderella and came up to Ricky's high standard.

What we find out about Serge is that he's good friends with the Chmerkovskiy brothers, Maks and Val, from "Dancing with the Stars." Carly was on the dance team in college. Didn't we know that already? Or am I thinking of Bridget?

They're dancing in skeleton suits for a hip-hop routine by Luther Brown. I remember when Pasha and Lauren Gottlieb did that awesome mechanical spider routine in skeleton hoodies. They're trying hard to sell it, but I'm not into it.

Nigel says it was a tough one because he knows how hard they both worked. He says it might not be the kind of routine that entices people to go vote. I agree with him, and Misty "somewhat" disagrees with Nigel. She says Serge continues to impress her and that Carly was great tonight. She says she loved it because she's "from this generation." Oh, Nigel's not going to like that. Wonder if we'll ever see Misty on the show again after tonight?

Tanisha lets it out that Rudy has a big crush on Jacque. Rudy tells us Tanisha has a big family. We knew this, Rudy. Did you understand the directions for this interview segment? In rehearsals they're struggling with all the cane work in Warren Carlyle's Broadway routine.

Tanisha is in a fringe-y flapper dress that really suits her. Their synchronization feels a bit off in some parts of their routine and I can't tell if it's intentional or not. The judges are all standing up and clapping at the end of the routine.

Misty thought they danced in perfect unison (shows what I know), but were still individuals. Up close, Tanisha's pink eye makeup is making her look ill somehow. Mary calls it a showstopper. Nigel says what Rudy lacks in technique he makes up for in performance. See, I find Rudy too hammy, too much mugging.

Cat teases Rudy more about his blossoming romance with Jacque and bleh bleh bleh. Leave the dancers to dance, who cares about their love lives?

Now we get a performance of "Say Something" by A Great Big World. This was used in a routine last year, before it became a worldwide smash single. I guess we get a musical performance so that they can get the bottom six dancers into place for judging.

Nigel says each week they take into account America's vote and their own opinion of the dancers' performances. Nigel says they're going with America's votes this week and has Stanley and Jourdan step forward to be eliminated. That's not entirely shocking. Jourdan stumbled out of the gate and wasn't the kind of contestant to connect with voters. Stanley had virtually no coverage in the audition episodes and didn't really explode in the first episode or two to make up for the audience not knowing him.

I guess this means Marcquet and Jessica will be partnered next week? I'm not sure if that's good news for either of them.

After a brief introduction from Cat, we head right into a group performance from the Top 20. Minor costuming quibble: Men are in suits, and the women are in crop-tops and dance briefs. Sigh. Maybe we could've had the guys shirtless, at least? Equal skin, people. It's a Sonya Tayeh routine, but...